I Drink from the Well

I drink from the well of knowledge,
and nourishment comes.
I drink from the well of wisdom,
and I outrun the sun.
I drink from the well of life,
and I am ever refreshed.
I drink from the well of the past,
and I discover the future.
I drink from the well of eternity,
and I discover this moment.

Text and image Copyright © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Poet and Machine

He embodies all of nature,
the universe is his to create,
but he creates unfeeling machines
to silently do his bidding.

Sunrises and sunsets pass
while he trains his imperfect servant,
sending his words directly
to the heart of every being.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

86,000 Visits and One List

Today we reached the milestone of 86,000 visits to this research, writing, and photography blog, since its inception three and a half years ago. It's a number that I like, and one that I would have to admit I never expected.

Sometimes I think I should separate the various components of the whole, putting them into different blogs. On the other hand, keeping them all together better reflects the way my life actually is. Not only that, but there is a tight relationship between the parts. Sometimes the poetry grows out of the photography, while at other times the latter is inspired and informed by the former. To put them all into separate blogs would be like separating my limbs from my torso.

Yesterday I published a list of more than fifty blog posts, going back at least a year, on the Synoptic Problem, Hebrew Matthew, and related topics. This became necessary because I was referring in recent posts to earlier ones, and could not remember exactly when I had published them. I hope the list will be useful to those who are interested in these areas of study.

The audience for this blog appears to be quite loyal, and it is certainly international, now including readers in more than a hundred countries. I am gratified by this growth. As usual, I want to thank you all for your continued interest and enthusiasm. Merci, todah, gracias, obrigado, wadó, ꮹꮩ.

Text © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler. Photo Credit: Fergus McCarthy, Midleton, Co. Cork, Ireland. All rights reserved.

Will You Reject (+fr, es, pt)

Will you reject my work
because I live my life naked?
Is nature that far
from your acceptable traditions?
No matter--I will continue
to do what I do,
and live as I live.

Rejetterez-vous mon travail
parce que je vis ma vie nu?
La nature est-elle si loin
de vos traditions acceptables?
Peu importe - je vais continuer
faire ce que je fais,
et vivre comme je vis.

¿Rechazarás mi trabajo
porque vivo mi vida desnudo?
¿Está la naturaleza tan lejos
de tus tradiciones aceptables?
No importa, continuaré
hacer lo que hago,
y vivir como vivo.

Você vai rejeitar o meu trabalho
porque eu vivo minha vida nu?
A natureza está tão longe
de suas tradições aceitáveis?
Não importa - continuarei
fazer o que eu faço,
e viver como eu vivo.

Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

A Listing of the Synoptica Series and Other Related Posts in this Blog (Revised)

Reading Matthew in Hebrew - I  October 26 2018 (others above, on same page)
The Layers of Matthew (I through X) Oct. 31 2018 through November 23 2018
The Book of Psalms and its Various Translations  May 19 2019
The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel  May 29 2019
The Earlier Forms of the Pater Noster  May 30 2019
The Beatitudes - A Trajectory Through Time  May 31 2019
Notes on the Synoptic Problem and the Antiquity of Hebrew Matthew June 16 2019
The Layered Matthew Hypothesis (Revised)  June 17 2019
New Testament Translations into Hebrew  June 20 2019
Synoptica I - Semitisms in Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew  June 24 2019
Synoptica II - Hebrew Matthew and the Formation of Canonical Matthew  June 25 2019
Synoptica III - Hebrew Matthew and the Formation of Canonical Matthew  June 26 2019
Synoptica IV - Hebrew Matthew and the Formation of Canonical Matthew  June 26 2019
Synoptica V - Hebrew Matthew and the Formation of Canonical Matthew June 27 2019
Synoptica VI - Hebrew Matthew and the Formation of Canonical Matthew June 27 2019
Synoptica VII - Omissions and Interpolations and What They Can Tell Us  July 5 2019
Synoptica VIII - Further Thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) July 10 2019
Synoptica IX - "Minor" or "Major" Agreements? July11 2019
Synoptica X - Stumbling Blocks, Confusion, and Woe  July 18 2019
Synoptica XI - Of Talents, Minas, and Goldens  July 21 2019
Synoptica XII - Unexpected Support for the Layered Matthew Hypothesis  July 22 2019
Synoptica XIII - The Beatitudes, Revisited  July 23 2019
Synoptica XIV - The Beatitudes Revisited, Part 2  July 23 2019
Synoptica XV - The Pater Noster, and What It Can Tell Us  July 24 2019
Synoptica XVI - More on the "Unexpected Support" for the Layered Mt. Hypothesis  Aug 16 2019
Synoptica XVII - John's Black Leather Belt  October 14 2019
Synoptica XVIII - "Carry" or "Unfasten?"  October 16 2019
Excursus Synopticus I - "ακοη" in Mt. 4:24 - A New Translation Variant  November 17 2019
Synoptica XIX - A Closer Look at the Beatitudes  November 21 2019
Synoptica XX - Rabbi Yeshua's Defense of the Law  November 23 2019
Synoptica XXI - The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel  November 24 2019
Matthew Ten Twenty-Six  November 29 2019
Synoptica XXII - Some Background  December 11 2019
Synoptica XXIII - Doing the Work (or trying to)  December 12 2019
Synoptica XXIV - Excursus on Mt. 5:30  December 13 2019
Synoptica XXV - Excursus on Mt. 5:25  December 20 2019
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - I (Defense of the Law)  January 2 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - II (The Antitheses) January 3 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - Mt. 10:24-25 January 31 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - V - First Matthaean Beatitude  February 7 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - VI - Second Matthaean Beatitude February 8 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - VII - Third Matthaean Beatitude February 10 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - VIII - Mt. 5:6, 7, 8  February 11 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - IX - Mt. 5:9-12  February 14 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - X - Mt. 5:13-15  February 26 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - XI - Mt. 6:9-13 February 27 2020
Commentary on the Teaching of Rabbi Yeshua - XII - What's in a Name?  Mt. 1:21  Feb. 28 2020
GTh Logion 37/P. Oxy 655/cf. Mt. 6:28  March 8 2020
Mt. 6:28-29 (heb, en, fr, es, pt)  March 19 2020
Notes on the Transmission of the Gospel of Matthew from Hebrew to Greek I - Mt. 21:3 Mar 26 2020
Notes on the Transmission of the Gospel of Matthew from Hebrew to Greek II: Mt. 7:6 Mar 28 2020
Synoptica XXVI - Mt. 3:11-12 and Hebrew Matthew  June 3 2020
Pointing the Text of Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew - Chapter 5  June 6 2020
Synoptica XXVII - Mt. 5:9: Those Who Pursue Peace  June 10 2020
Synoptica XXVIII - Still More on the Beatitudes  June 11 2020
Synoptica XXIX - More Yet on the Beatitudes  June 12 2020
Synoptica XXX - Even More on the Beatitudes  June 28 2020
Synoptica XXXI - The Beatitudes per Codex Bezae ("D")  June 29 2020
The Pater Noster: A Trajectory through Time - Part I  July 3 2020
The Pater Noster: A Trajectory through Time - Part II  July 4 2020
Further Thoughts on the Pater Noster  July 5 2020


Copyright © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Synoptica XXIX - More Yet on the Beatitudes

Here is a graphical representation of my Layered Matthew Hypothesis:

Matthew I still lacked most of the Sayings material. Some of the narrative, including that concerning John the Baptist, is also scantier than in Matthew and Luke.

Matthew IIa has its best surviving witness in Luke. Some of the Sayings material (e.g. the Beatitudes) is in a less-developed form than in Matthew IIb and in Canonical Matthew. One must also keep in mind that Luke was written for Paul's Gentile audience, editing as needed to make it more palatable (and in some cases less offensive) to an audience of non-Jews.

Matthew IIb was intermediate between the version used by Luke and that on which canonical (Greek) Matthew is based.

[Although not yet shown in the graphic, there must have been another intermediate stage (Matthew IIc), represented by the oldest manuscripts of the so-called "Western" (Syro-Latin) textual tradition, especially the oldest Old Latin (Afra), best exemplified by Codex Bobiensis ("k"), which is unfortunately incomplete for Matthew, only covering Mt. 1:1 through  15:36. This Latin translation is closer to the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew than any other surviving text (but not the same as it).]

Matthew III is the canonical, Greek Matthew with which we are familiar. There is abundant evidence that it was translated from an original written in Hebrew.

This theory thus requires no hypothetical texts, and no texts without witnesses.


We now return to our examination of the Beatitudes.

In chronological order:


LUKE

Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

[Total Beatitudes (including "Rejoice") = 5. Two connected by "now," but other catchwords have been lost in the translation process.]


SHEM-TOB'S HEBREW MATTHEW

Blessed are those who wait [s/b "weep," probable scribal error] for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the innocent of heart, for they shall see GOD.

Blessed are those who PURSUE peace, for they shall be called sons of GOD.

Blessed are those who are PERSECUTED for righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they PERSECUTE and revile you and say against you kinds of evil for my sake, but speak falsely.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is very great in heaven, for thus they PERSECUTED the prophets.

[Total Beatitudes (including "Rejoice") = 6, of which 5 are connected by catchwords.]

[NOTE: The catchword series "pursue-persecute-persecuted-persecute-persecuted" is all one verb, רדפ, in Hebrew. where it means both "pursue" and "persecute." I don't know if this would work in any other language, but the entire catchword series is lost in Luke's Greek.]



CODEX BOBIENSIS ("k")

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.*

Blessed are the meek, who shall inherit the earth,

Blessed are those who are weeping, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see the Lord.

Blessed are the peaceful, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who have suffered PERSECUTION for the cause of justice,
for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.*

Blessed shall you be when you are PERSECUTED and maligned and they say all evil against you in the cause of justice.

Rejoice and exult, for your reward is great in heaven, for so their brothers PERSECUTED the prophets who were before you.

[Total: 10 Beatitudes, of which 3 are connected by catchwords.]



CANONICAL (GREEK) MATTHEW

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.*

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of GOD.

Blessed are those who are PERSECUTED for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.*

Blessed are you when men revile you and PERSECUTE you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in the heavens,* for so men PERSECUTED the prophets who were before you.

[Total = 10 Beatitudes (including "Rejoice"), of which 5 (2+3) are connected by catchwords.]


Progression of the totals: Luke = 5, Shem-Tob = 6, "k" =10, Grk. Mt. = 10. From this we can see that the list of Beatitudes grew longer with time.

Where I have marked asterisks, modern translations tend to have "heaven" in the singular, which is more idiomatic in modern European languages. I have translated these instances literally from the Latin and Greek, where they are in the plural. In Hebrew, the word for "heaven/heavens/sky" normally appear in the plural (שמים), and it is likely that these plurals in Latin and Greek are artifacts of the process of translation from Hebrew.



Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.

Synoptica XXVIII - Still More on the Beatitudes

I've written about the Beatitudes several times in this series, and now I'm going to do it again. There is a reason. First of all, the Beatitudes are part of the oldest kernel of the Gospel of Matthew. We know this because their catchword connections are a feature of the stage of oral transmission. They are also a good illustration of the way in which Matthew built his Gospel in layers (see my Layered Matthew Hypothesis, in earlier blog posts). Witnesses to this trajectory through time are 1) the Gospel of Luke, 2) Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew, as preserved by the medieval Jewish community, 3) the Syro-Latin textual tradition in the Gospel of Matthew, and 4) the canonical, Greek textual tradition, especially in Matthew and Luke. When we consider all these witnesses, an interesting picture emerges, one that I think is decisive for the solution of the Synoptic Problem, and also clears up many wrong readings in the canonical texts.

As reflected both in Luke and in the Shem-Tob Hebrew Matthew, the list of Beatitudes in Matthew was originally shorter than it is in the canonical, Greek-based texts.

There is also an inversion of the order of verses 5:4 and 5:5 in the texts belonging to the earlier, Syro-Latin textual tradition as compared to the manuscripts of the canonical, Greek textual tradition. Unfortunately, we cannot say on which side of this divide Shem-Tob would fall, Since it does not have our Mt. 5:5 at all. George Howard prints it in his translation, but eight of the nine mss. used in his apparatus do not have it. The only one that does have it is his "A," which as he says, is the most edited to harmonize with the canonical texts.

In 5:4 ("those who mourn" in the canonical, Greek texts), corresponds to "those who wait" in Shem-Tob, and "those who "weep" in Codex Bobiensis ("k"), the oldest Old Latin that we have, and also a specimen of the "Afra" text stream, which is older than the European Latin. It is very similar, if not identical, to the text-type used by St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, in his third-century writings, and it has been determined, on paleographic grounds, to be a copy of a second-century papyrus. It is older than the Vulgate, and older than the Alexandrian Greek texts that we consider "the best."

The reading "weep," as attested in "k," would be הבוכים in Hebrew. The reading "wait," which we find in Shem-Tob's Hebrew Matthew , has a very similar appearance: החוכים. I think it most likely that "wait" was caused by an error in copying the Hebrew manuscripts, and that "weep," as attested in "k," is the original reading. "Mourn" in the Greek texts would then be mere synecdoche, and the "wait" of Shem-Tob would be incorrect. See p. 226 in the 1995 edition of Professor Howard's book for his take on this variant.

The reading "weep" also has some support from Luke 6:21, where we read "Blessed are you who weep, for you shall laugh."

(to be continued)


Text © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.